The invention relates to a drive device for adjusting an operating element for a valve, a throttle, a blow-out preventer (BOP) or the like, in particular in the field of gas and oil exploitation and/or production, the operating element being actively connected to at least one driving motor via a drive train, and at least one transmission changing unit being arranged in the drive train for converting a revolution of the driving motor into a revolution of the operating element and/or a revolution/linear motion converter being arranged for converting the revolution of the driving motor into a linear motion of the operating element.
Such a drive device is known, for example, from the DE 200 18 561. The drive device serves for adjusting an isolating element as an operating element in a blow-out preventer (BOP). In the drive train for the linear adjustment of the operating element, for example, a worm gear pair is arranged as the transmission changing unit. A revolution generated by an electric driving motor is introduced into the drive train by a worm wheel and converted into a linear motion of the operating element by a ball screw as the revolution/linear motion converter.
Normally, for adjusting the operating element, great forces are necessary, so that a plurality of driving motors optionally having correspondingly large dimensions for offering the corresponding power are employed. Therefore, the drive device becomes relatively bulky and difficult to handle in particular in applications in gas or oil production. It should be noted that the corresponding drive devices optionally have to be replaced or serviced underneath sea level or even on the ocean bed by telecontrolled vehicles or manually, which is time-consuming and expensive with bulky drive devices. Furthermore, it should be noted that one has to take into account the heat development of the normally large driving motors, in some cases necessitating separate cooling devices for the drive devices even if they are arranged underwater.